Why Rabbits? Won't they escape?

Rabbits have been successfully farmed in West Papua for over 50 years. Rabbit farming began in Papua New Guinea in 1992. There have been no reported incidences in West Papua or PNG of rabbits escaping and establishing in the wild. Rabbits originally come from arid environments and do not survive well in humid and tropical areas. For example there are no ferel populations of rabbits in northern rainforests of Australia or any other tropical rainforest in the world.

TCA has decided to persue rabbit farming as a replacement mammal for a mammal. The idea being that people will hopefully eat rabbits and not tree kangaroos in the future. Rabbits produce more offspring than any other native mammal in the Torricelli Mountains. Provided the rabbits are well managed by the villages, people will have a sustainable protein source. For example three female rabbits and one male rabbit will provide a family with one rabbit to eat each week.

Rabbits provide excellent by-products including manure, fur and potentially a small cash income. There are no cultural or religious limitations for farming and eating rabbits. Rabbits can survive and breed well on locally grown food such as sweet potato, corn, beans and grasses. For these reasons TCA has chosen rabbits as its first protein farming venture.

TCA has provided each village with nails, wire and hinges to build rabbit cages. Those villages that have completed making their rabbit cages have received rabbits from TCA. The rabbits bred in Lumi will supply the 18 villages with their own breeding stock and later TCA will make these rabbits available to other villages. Representatives from each village have attended a short training course and more training will be given as the rabbit farming progresses. TCA has supplied 130 rabbits to the villages within the program in 2004 and plans to supply this number to villages again in 2005.

TCA aims to provide the people of the Torricelli Mountains other alternative protein sources such as fish and egg-laying chickens. Plans are underway to commence this early in 2006. The implementation of these programs will depend on funding.

Rabbit Cages -